The Impact of Technological Malfunctioning, Breakdown, and Repair on Communication

技术故障、故障和维修对通信的影响

• 批准号: 1534589
• 负责人: Alexander Dent
• 金额: $ 24.82万
• 依托单位: George Washington University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-09-01 至 2019-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1534589&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Impact; Technological; Malfunctioning; Breakdown; Repair

The cellular phone - increasingly, the "smart" phone - is playing an increasingly important role in the way that Americans communicate. But if cell phones are central to how we interact, and also to the ways that individuals conceive of their identities, what happens when they do not work the way they are supposed to? There has been considerable scientific research on the cellular phone itself, and even on its role in changing communicative processes; however, there has been almost no scientific attention paid to cellular phone breakdown and repair, a strange omission since one of the primary aspects of cellular phone use revolves around its inadequate functioning. The research will study the problems that cellular phone malfunction poses, and the strategies that are adopted to cope with their breakdown and repair. It will contribute to improving understanding of the role of cellular communication in education, family life, and identity formation. Data from the project will inform an exhibit at the National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) on the cell phone, set to open in 2019. The NMNH, which hosts an average 7 million visitors each year, provides an excellent forum for disseminating enhancing scientific and technological understanding to the public.Dr. Alexander Dent and Dr. Joel Kuipers of The George Washington University, together with Dr. Joshua Bell of The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, will collaborate in a three year study that examines the breakdown of cellular phones in two ways. First, they will look at how teenagers handle the breakdown of the physical phone itself: cracked screens, inadequate signals, and software glitches. Teenagers are uniquely connected to their cellular devices, and their social and emotional worlds are intimately tied up with their devices. Second, they will examine how teenagers handle the breakdowns in social life that take place through phones: the accidentally forwarded emails, deleted messages, and disastrous auto-corrects. The investigators will accomplish this analysis through a range of ethnographic methods, beginning with surveys of the sophomore classes of two racially diverse Washington DC high schools (400 subjects). From these initial surveys, 30 individuals will be selected for more in-depth cellular phone "biographies." And finally, 10 families will be selected for immersive video recording at home and in schools, in addition to in-depth interviews. Data will be coded according to five sorts of trouble: hardware, software, infrastructure, etiquette, and conversational. At a time when smart phones are proliferating around the world, and when their importance to our day-to-day communication is so great, it becomes imperative to understand the ways in which physical breakdown and communicational breakdown are related to one another, reinforcing not only the problems, but the shape that repairs take. Material from this study will be presented in academic papers, as well as an NMNH exhibit on the cellular phone. The project's investigation of teen insights into repair will help us understand the formation of technological expertise, the ways in which different media work together in "media ecologies," and the beliefs that people hold about the importance of cellular communication to everyday life.

手机——越来越“智能”的手机——在美国人的沟通方式中发挥着越来越重要的作用。 但是，如果手机是我们互动方式以及个人认知其身份的方式的核心，那么当它们不按应有的方式工作时会发生什么？人们对手机本身，甚至其在改变通信过程中的作用进行了大量的科学研究。然而，几乎没有对手机故障和维修给予科学关注，这是一个奇怪的遗漏，因为手机使用的主要方面之一是其功能不足。该研究将研究手机故障造成的问题，以及应对手机故障和维修所采取的策略。它将有助于增进对细胞通信在教育、家庭生活和身份形成中的作用的理解。该项目的数据将为国家自然历史博物馆 (NMNH) 的手机展览提供信息，该展览定于 2019 年开放。NMNH 每年平均接待 700 万游客，为传播增强科学知识提供了一个绝佳的论坛。以及公众对技术的了解。乔治华盛顿大学的亚历山大·登特 (Alexander Dent) 和乔尔·库珀斯 (Joel Kuipers) 博士以及史密森尼国家自然历史博物馆的约书亚·贝尔 (Joshua Bell) 博士将合作进行一项为期三年的研究，以两种方式检查手机的故障。首先，他们将研究青少年如何处理手机本身的故障：屏幕破裂、信号不足和软件故障。青少年与他们的移动设备有着独特的联系，他们的社交和情感世界也与他们的设备紧密相连。其次，他们将研究青少年如何处理通过手机发生的社交生活中的故障：意外转发的电子邮件、删除的消息以及灾难性的自动更正。调查人员将通过一系列人种学方法完成这项分析，首先对华盛顿特区两所不同种族高中的二年级学生进行调查（400 名受试者）。从这些初步调查中，将选出 30 个人来撰写更深入的手机“传记”。最后，除了深度访谈外，还将选择 10 个家庭在家里和学校进行沉浸式视频录制。数据将根据五种类型进行编码：硬件、软件、基础设施、礼仪和会话。当智能手机在世界范围内激增，并且它们对我们的日常沟通如此重要时，我们必须了解物理故障和通信故障之间的相互关系，从而加强而不是加强联系。不仅仅是问题，还有修复的形式。这项研究的材料将在学术论文中以及手机上的 NMNH 展览中呈现。该项目对青少年对修复的见解的调查将帮助我们了解技术专业知识的形成、不同媒体在“媒体生态”中协同工作的方式，以及人们对细胞通信对日常生活重要性的信念。